Giving away art for free – who benefits in the end? (Someone once said that I reminded them of a ‘better-looking Thom Yorke’. I’ve never known if that was a compliment or not.)

No, regrettably this little novella isn’t going to be a contestant on The Voice, but there is a music connection. In 2007 the British rock-band Radiohead famously released their seventh studio album, In Rainbows, on a pay-what-you-want-for-the-download basis. Whilst definitive results of the experiment are hard to come by, indications are that about 60% chose to pay nothing, while the remainder paid on average a significantly discounted price. Overall, however, once the album was released physically, In Rainbows was a financial and critical success, making more money than the band’s previous album across all platforms. At the time, Radiohead’s approach was considered ground-breaking, but over the years there’s been debate about its impact on the music industry in general; even Thom Yorke, the band’s free-thinking frontman, said that the strategy may have been a mistake, as it played into the prevailing internet culture that everything should be free.

For a limited time only, the e-book version of Fall on Me is available to download on a pay-what-you-want basis. Nice.

As is increasingly obvious, the publishing world is currently in turmoil and in many ways is following on the digital coat-tails of the music industry, or at least trying to. Publishers big and small are looking to try anything and everything to get their books in the hands of readers. And my publisher, Blemish Books, is no different. So, for a limited time only, Blemish have released Fall on Me as an e-book on a pay-what-you-want basis. It’s a very interesting proposition, because it’s actually the mirror-reverse of the In Rainbows experiment: Fall on Me has already had a successful run as a physical book, in terms of both numbers sold and positive reviews achieved. But will this new strategy generate downloads? And how much will readers pay for it? And what do I reckon about all this? I’m just glad that the life of Fall on Me is being extended, and if Blemish’s cheeky Radiohead-esque move means more readers can experience the novella then I’m all for it. Plus I have a phone-bill to pay.

I’m Ready Now for Smith’s and the Southern Highlands

This little baby’s gonna be out and about a bit more over the coming months. I’ll probably turn up as well.

Meanwhile, the most recent of the two novellas, I’m Ready Now, continues to make its way in the world as a hard-copy-only book. A handful of reviews down, and some public-reading gigs in the bag, I’m Ready Now has a few more outings up its sleeve. At 6pm on Thursday 20 June, I’ll be joining my Blemish stable-mates, including PS Cottier and JC Inman, at a special one-off event called A Very Blemished Evening, a title that suits me perfectly. It’ll be held at the new Smith’s Alternative, which is a longstanding and iconic Canberra bookshop that’s recently had a major overhaul and is now as much a bar and performance space as it is a place of books and reading. Do join us: there’ll be booze, which is the main thing, isn’t it. Oh and I’ve heard gratuitous gossip that there’ll be music by Canberra’s favourite streetwise troubadours, The Cashews. Now that’s something to get excited about.

Then, a few weeks later, at 4pm on Saturday 13 July, I’ll be taking part in the Southern Highlands Writers’ Festival. Established only last year, this time around the Festival has on offer literary luminaries such as Anne Sommers, Mark Tredinnick, Ursula Dubasarsky, and Geordie Williamson, all in a charming venue with an intimate atmosphere. Don’t like the massive crowds of the big-city festivals? Me neither, so come to this one. I’ll be sharing the stage with Christine Howe, which is a bit nice as we’re both alumni of the University of Wollongong’s creative writing program. We’ll be talking ‘Fantastic Fiction’ – apparently this requires us to dress as superheroes. Me in lycra? It’ll never happen. But I’m sure Christine and I will still be able to keep you entertained. Especially if there’s booze at the end of it.

*

As always, thanks for your support and interest. Fingers crossed that I’ll see you at one – or maybe both? – of these events. And if you’re in the market for the highest quality e-book known to mankind, I do hope you’ll be able to press the right buttons and make a very independent publisher and their very independent author just that little bit happier. Plus there’s that phone-bill to pay. Chink-chink.

Interesting experiment Nigel … as Irma says, I look forward to seeing your results. In the meantime I’ll see if I can hang a Monday Musings off it … the issue of e-literature/e-culture perhaps is such a work in progress eh!

I’ll put June 20 in my diary too … it may be committed, Thursdays often are, but I’ll do my best.

Hi Sue, it certainly will be interesting to see what happens next. I’ll be following it closely. And it’d be great to see what you make of it through a Monday Musing! And if I see you on the 20th, that would be just wonderful.

You have to wear a costume Nigel – the caped crusader 😉 I think that the idea of downloading an e-version after the initial book sales has some merit – keeps the book on the radar – and wouldn’t affect the actual sales (as those who meant to buy it would have already done so – or most of them) to a great degree – and it is an experiment so what’s the harm. Doing it upfront like Radiohead did was a real risk which paid off – but mightn’t for a lot of bands (or authors). As usual letting people know about the whole thing will have the greatest impact – wouldn’t it be great to see you on the Book Show (in Batman costume – haha) 🙂

After lugging half a dozen books around Europe and missing some that I didn’t carry, after having recently purchased a Nexus 7, I am loving the e-format. I’m happy to hear Fall on Me is going ‘e’ and am sure it will reach further and last longer.

Hi Mark, good to hear from you. Thanks for your good thoughts about Fall on Me going electronic (there must be a Bob Dylan joke there somewhere). But I’d love to to know what was on your international-travel reading list!?

Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf, a Bukowski collection that I gifted to a Cypriot ‘refugee’ in Paris, Julie Beveridge’s Home(sic) poetry collection, Australian Poetry Journal, Douglas Coupland’s Generation X and a couple of others that I can’t recall. And there’s always a Bob Dylan joke somewhere!
I will be getting an e-copy of Fall for my second reading and looking forward to I’m Ready Now going electronic as I’m trying to reduce the space I take up on this earth. Recently bought Franzen’s Freedom and am nearing the end of Murakami’s Norwegian Wood. Loving the e more now than I did back in the nineties (!)